Why We Use Azure and .NET

Our Technology Stack: Azure and .NET

At Imagile, we’ve made deliberate choices about our core technology stack. While we work with many technologies, Azure and .NET form the foundation of most solutions we build. Here’s why.

The .NET Advantage

Performance That Matters

.NET consistently ranks as one of the fastest application frameworks in the industry.

TechEmpower Benchmarks (Latest Results):

• .NET ranks #1 among major enterprise frameworks
• ASP.NET Core outperforms Node.js, Spring Boot, and Django
• Minimal API achieves 7M+ requests/second on single machine

// Modern .NET - Fast and clean
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
var app = builder.Build();

app.MapGet("/api/products/{id}", async (int id, IProductService service) => 
    await service.GetProductAsync(id));

app.Run();
// Simple, fast, type-safe

Compare to frameworks requiring more boilerplate or with slower runtimes—.NET delivers production-grade performance with minimal code.

Type Safety and Tooling

Strong typing catches errors at compile time, not runtime:

// Type safety prevents bugs
public record CreateOrderRequest(
    int CustomerId,
    List<OrderItem> Items,
    decimal TotalAmount
);

// IDE knows all properties, provides IntelliSense
// Compiler catches type mismatches
// Refactoring is safe and automated

Developer Productivity:

• Visual Studio: Industry-leading IDE with deep .NET integration
• C# Dev Kit for VS Code: Lightweight but powerful
• Hot Reload: See changes without restarting
• LINQ: Query any data source with strongly-typed queries

Cross-Platform Reality

Modern .NET runs everywhere:

• Windows: Native performance
• Linux: Production-grade containers
• macOS: Full development experience
• ARM64: Native support for modern processors

# Deploy .NET on Linux containers
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:8.0-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=build /app/publish .
ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "MyApp.dll"]
# Small image (~100MB), fast startup, production-ready

Unified Platform

One framework for everything:

// Web API
app.MapGet("/api/data", () => new { data = "value" });

// Background Jobs
services.AddHostedService<DataProcessingWorker>();

// Real-time Communication
app.MapHub<ChatHub>("/chat");

// Database Access
await context.Products.Where(p => p.Price > 100).ToListAsync();

// All in one language, one runtime, one deployment

The Azure Advantage

Deep .NET Integration

Azure services are designed for .NET (though they support other languages too):

// Azure SDK for .NET - First-class experience
var client = new BlobServiceClient(connectionString);
await client.GetBlobContainerClient("images")
    .GetBlobClient("photo.jpg")
    .UploadAsync(stream);

// Type-safe, async/await native, excellent error handling

Comprehensive PaaS Offerings

Azure provides managed services that eliminate infrastructure management:

App Service:

// Deploy .NET app to Azure App Service
// Zero infrastructure management
// Auto-scaling
// Built-in monitoring
// One-click deployments from Git

Azure SQL Database:

• Automatic backups
• Point-in-time restore
• Auto-tuning
• Serverless option (pay per use)
• Built-in high availability

Azure Functions:

[Function("ProcessOrder")]
public async Task<HttpResponseData> Run(
    [HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Function, "post")] HttpRequestData req,
    [QueueOutput("orders")] IAsyncCollector<Order> orderQueue)
{
    var order = await req.ReadFromJsonAsync<Order>();
    await orderQueue.AddAsync(order);
    
    return req.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.Accepted);
}
// Serverless, auto-scales, pay per execution

Enterprise-Grade Security

Azure provides security features critical for production:

• Azure Active Directory: Enterprise identity management
• Managed Identities: No credentials in code
• Key Vault: Secure secret management
• Azure Policy: Enforce compliance
• Microsoft Defender: Threat protection

// No secrets in code - Managed Identity
var credential = new DefaultAzureCredential();
var client = new SecretClient(
    new Uri("https://myvault.vault.azure.net/"),
    credential
);

var secret = await client.GetSecretAsync("ConnectionString");
// Azure handles authentication automatically

Cost Optimization

Azure offers multiple ways to control costs:

Reserved Instances:

• Save 30-70% with 1-3 year commitments

Azure Hybrid Benefit:

• Use existing Windows Server licenses
• Reduces compute costs significantly

Serverless Options:

• Azure Functions: Pay per execution
• Azure SQL Serverless: Pay per second of use
• Azure Container Apps: Scale to zero

Dev/Test Pricing:

• Discounted rates for non-production environments

Global Reach

Deploy close to your users:

• 60+ Azure regions worldwide
• Multi-region deployments with Traffic Manager
• Azure CDN for static content globally
• Azure Front Door for global load balancing

Real-World Architecture

Here’s a typical Imagile solution:

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Azure Front Door                                       │
│  - Global load balancing                               │
│  - CDN for static content                              │
│  - DDoS protection                                     │
└────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┘
                 │
    ┌────────────┴──────────────┐
    │                           │
┌───▼──────────────┐   ┌────────▼─────────────┐
│  Azure App       │   │  Azure Functions     │
│  Service         │   │  (Background Jobs)   │
│  - .NET 8 API    │   │  - Event processing  │
│  - Auto-scale    │   │  - Serverless        │
└──────┬───────────┘   └────────┬─────────────┘
       │                        │
       │                        │
┌──────▼────────────────────────▼────────────┐
│  Azure Service Bus                         │
│  - Message queuing                         │
│  - Pub/sub patterns                        │
└──────┬─────────────────────────────────────┘
       │
┌──────▼────────────────────────┐
│  Azure SQL Database           │
│  - Geo-replication           │
│  - Automatic backups         │
│  - Auto-tuning              │
└───────────────────────────────┘

Why This Architecture Works:

1. .NET provides high performance and productivity
2. Azure App Service eliminates server management
3. Azure Functions handles background tasks cost-effectively
4. Service Bus ensures reliable message delivery
5. Azure SQL provides managed, scalable database
6. Everything is auto-scaling, highly available, and monitored

Cost Comparison: Azure + .NET vs Alternatives

Scenario: Mid-sized SaaS application

Component	AWS + Java	Azure + .NET	Savings
Compute	EC2: $800/mo	App Service: $500/mo	38%
Database	RDS: $600/mo	Azure SQL: $400/mo	33%
Functions	Lambda: $200/mo	Azure Functions: $150/mo	25%
Monitoring	CloudWatch: $100/mo	App Insights: Included	100%
Total	$1,700/mo	$1,050/mo	38%

With Azure Hybrid Benefit and Reserved Instances, savings can exceed 60%

Developer Experience

Fast Development Cycles

# Local development
dotnet run
# App starts in < 1 second with hot reload

# Deploy to Azure
az webapp up --name myapp --runtime "DOTNET:8.0"
# Deploys in 30 seconds

Excellent Debugging

// Set breakpoint, debug locally
var result = await service.ProcessOrder(order);

// Same code, debug in production with Azure App Service
// Remote debugging, snapshot debugging, live metrics

Integrated Monitoring

// Application Insights automatically tracks:
var telemetry = app.Services.GetRequiredService<TelemetryClient>();
telemetry.TrackEvent("OrderProcessed", new Dictionary<string, string> {
    { "OrderId", order.Id.ToString() },
    { "Amount", order.Total.ToString() }
});

// View in Azure Portal:
// - Request rates
// - Response times
// - Dependencies
// - Exceptions
// - Custom events

When NOT to Use Azure + .NET

We’re pragmatic about technology choices:

Use Alternative When:

• You need specific AWS services (e.g., AWS SageMaker for ML)
• Team has deep expertise in another stack
• Existing infrastructure is heavily GCP-based
• Project is purely frontend (consider Vercel, Netlify)
• You’re building a simple static site (use Astro, like this blog!)

Our Recommendation Framework

public class TechnologyChoice
{
    public static Stack Recommend(ProjectRequirements requirements)
    {
        if (requirements.IsEnterprise && requirements.NeedsHighPerformance)
            return new Stack { Cloud = "Azure", Backend = ".NET" };
        
        if (requirements.IsStaticSite)
            return new Stack { Cloud = "Azure Static Web Apps", Framework = "Astro" };
        
        if (requirements.NeedsRealtimeFeatures)
            return new Stack { Cloud = "Azure", Backend = ".NET + SignalR" };
        
        // Always choose best tool for the job
        return EvaluateOptions(requirements);
    }
}

The Imagile Standard

For most client projects, we recommend:

Backend:

• .NET 8 (latest LTS)
• ASP.NET Core Minimal APIs
• Entity Framework Core
• SignalR for real-time features

Cloud:

• Azure App Service for web apps
• Azure Functions for background jobs
• Azure SQL Database for relational data
• Cosmos DB for NoSQL scenarios
• Azure Storage for files and queues

Frontend:

• Blazor for .NET-centric teams
• React/Next.js for JavaScript-centric teams
• Astro for content-heavy sites (like this blog!)

Migration Path

Already on another stack? We help with:

From AWS to Azure:

• EC2 → Azure App Service (or VMs if needed)
• RDS → Azure SQL Database
• Lambda → Azure Functions
• S3 → Azure Blob Storage

From Java to .NET:

• Spring Boot → ASP.NET Core
• Hibernate → Entity Framework Core
• Maintaining similar architecture patterns
• Gradual service-by-service migration

Conclusion

We choose Azure and .NET because they provide:

1. Performance: Industry-leading benchmarks
2. Productivity: Excellent tooling and developer experience
3. Cost-Effectiveness: Competitive pricing with significant discounts
4. Enterprise Features: Security, compliance, support
5. Integration: Deep integration between Azure services and .NET
6. Long-term Support: Microsoft’s commitment to enterprise customers

This doesn’t mean they’re right for every project, but they’re our default choice for enterprise applications that need to scale, perform, and be maintained long-term.

The combination of .NET’s performance and Azure’s managed services allows us to build robust, scalable applications while keeping infrastructure complexity low.

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Want to discuss your technology stack? Contact us for a consultation on Azure and .NET for your project.